ZIMBABWE, BULAWAYO — The environmental practices of Chinese coal companiesare threatening the future of Zimbabwe’s National Zambezi Water Project,according to Zimbabwean officials.

The government has granted a number of Chinese companies mining rights alongthe Gwayi and Shangani rivers, the site of the Gwayi-Shangani Dam, whichwill serve as the reservoir for water drawn from the Zambezi River under thewater pipeline mega project.

Both the Gwayi-Shangani Dam and the Zambezi pipeline are being fundedthrough a Chinese loan.

But officials from the Gwayi Valley Conservancy now say the Chinese miningfirms are flouting environmental laws and polluting the rivers that feed theGwayi-Shangani Dam.

They are engaging in open pit mining, which is blamed for causing siltationwhile coal residue is making its way into the main waterways.

“Some of these Chinese companies have been fined more than three times bythe Environmental Management Agency for operating without an environmentalimpact assessment certificate, but they continue to secretly do theirpegging on the farms and some have established structures that they are notallowed to [build] by law,” Mark Russell, chairman of the Gwayi ValleyIntensive Conservation Area, told reporters last week.

Langton Masunda, another official from the Gwayi Valley IntensiveConservation Area, said the level of pollution from coal mining could be aserious blow to efforts to bring water to the region.

“Allowing the Chinese companies to extract coal in the Gwayi area wouldscuttle Bulawayo’s plans to draw water from Zambezi River. We are notrefusing development in Matabeleland North, but we should also think of ourchildren and grandchildren," said Masunda, who sits on the conservancy’sexecutive committee.

“Water has far-reaching benefits than the mining activities that are likelyto last for about 20 years, but the environment won’t be renewable aftercoal mining. Those who make decisions should make economic decisions andthink of the future generations,” Masunda said.

The operations of Chinese companies, which have won multi-million-dollarcontracts in virtually every sector of the Zimbabwean economy, areincreasingly coming under scrutiny, with some critics noting laborviolations at some of the dam construction sites across the country.

The Water Ministry has not weighed in on the pollution concerns.

Critics also say the Chinese are protected by President Robert Mugabe underhis ambitious “Look East policy,” which over the past decade has courtedChinese investment as part of the country’s economic revival efforts.